31 May, 2008

OK, did 5 easy miles on the treadmill at the gym today. No special reason I didn't run outside, just happened to be passing the gym, so pulled in.

Back at it tomorrow w/ a 7-miler. I'm in a June mileage challenge, so rather than do 6 today and 6 tomorrow for 12 total this weekend, thought I'd go 5 today and then 7 tomorrow when we're into June. :-)

30 May, 2008

OK, although the results aren't really supposed to be posted until Monday 2 June...

Looks like the NYRR is already posting lottery results for the Nike NYC Half-Marathon. And my sis and I both got in!! YAAAAAAY! I'll wait until Monday when results are really supposed to be up, and then will book my flight down to the city for it.

Running has been low priority lately due to bathroom renovation, but that's almost over now, so back at it full force!

Tonight I have 6 easy. Of course, I haven't been running much, so I don't really think a 6-miler's gonna be easy at all. :-)

23 May, 2008

You may or may not have gleaned from my posts that I run marathons with Fred's Team, raising funds for cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Fred's Team focuses their efforts on the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research. Here are some sobering facts about pediatric cancers:

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) federal budget was $4.6 billion. Of that, breast cancer received 12%, prostate cancer received 7%, and all 12 major groups of pediatric cancers combined received less than 3% .

Cancer accounts for the greatest number of disease deaths of children in the United States and kills more children per year than cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, asthma and AIDS combined.

Each child in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer receives approximately one-sixth of the federal research support allocated to each patient afflicted with AIDS. Yet in 2004, 48 new cases of pediatric AIDS were diagnosed vs. more than 12,000 pediatric cancer cases.

Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.

Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

Please keep these facts in mind - it's a lot to think about, but there are a lot of families bearing a terrible burden due to this awful disease.

Also, please consider making a donation to fund Neuroblastoma research at MSKCC by supporting my run in the 2008 NYC Marathon. My fundraising page on MSKCC's website is: https://fredsteam.mskcc.org/fundraising/Controller?action=userHome&user_id=26&event_id=113

20 May, 2008

Whether it's on treadmill or outside is dependant on my motivation level at the end of the day. I have a habit of going home and then never making it back out the door for my run, so sometimes it's just best for me to head straight to the gym on my way home from work.

Gosh, if someone could invent an auto-pilot button on cars to drive people right to their gym, that'd be great. Or other option would be a "kick-in-the-pants" machine to help me get my butt out the door to go running. Either way... :-)

19 May, 2008

This time last year, I was pleased to be at a weight where I felt really fit, healthy, and comfortable. I'm 5'5", but given my Italian-peasant-stock bloodline and childbearing hips, I will never be a tiny thing. Which is absolutely 100% fine with me - I look fit and healthy.

Anyways, I've not been really paying much attention to my diet over the past year, and through the summer/fall of 2007, it didn't matter because I was in marathon season and running a ton. So when I saw a gain of .5 of a pound here, and .5 of a pound there, I didn't really think much of it.

But I've not been running much in the last 3-4 months. Just having major motivation issues, and a general lack of interest in running.

So, today, I actually looked at where I was last year, and where I am now, and looking at those two numbers next to each other - well HOLY CRAP, I've gained 11.8 pounds in the last year.

It's clearly time to focus - on the food intake, AND on my running. Actually, the running goes without saying as I begin my marathon training season in less than a month. YIKES! I can't be carrying around 12 extra pounds - that's a lot of wear and tear that's not needed.

07 May, 2008

Went to the gym, did 4 miles in 46:48. I know that sounds slow, and before the last 2 months of slacking off, that would have been my easy pace. However, it wasn't easy at all. 4 miles, cooldown, stretch, 100 crunches.

About Me

I've been running off and on since 2000, but mostly "on" for the last 4 years. I've run countless short races from 5K up to 15Ks, a good number of half-marathons (usually during training season), and 8 full marathons (7 NYC Marathons and Chicago 2007). I'm in injury-recovery and base-building mode. Now that we're into 2018, my goal for the first half of the year is very slow mileage building and losing a good bit of weight before training for the 2018 Chicago Marathon starts.

Out of a yearly federal budget for cancer research, Breast cancer receives 12%, Prostate cancer receives 7% and all twelve major groups of childhood cancer combined receive less than 3%. A child diagnosed with cancer receives 1/6 of the research funds per patient allocated to AIDS patients. In 2004 there were 48 new cases of pediatric AIDS vs. 12,000 cases of pediatric cancer. Each school day 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.